It may be advisable to reduce the speed limit from 60km/h to 50km/h in certain areas, but there is no evidence to suggest that the same strategy will work for all of South Africa’s roads.
This is the viewpoint of Driving.co.za managing director, Rob Handfield-Jones, who discussed the country’s speed limits on Cape Talk.
Rob Handfield-Jones explained that studies have been conducted which found that lowering speed limits in urban areas may be beneficial to road safety.
“From 60km/h to 50km/h, there are definite safety benefits associated with that,” he said.
“It stands to reason because urban areas are the areas where you have more activity, and if you reduce speed limits, drivers have more time to notice and react to hazards.”
However, he cautioned that taking the same approach to the nation’s major roads and highway speed limits is unlikely to achieve the same result.
“It’s a different picture, and there’s no evidence at all that reducing speed limits on high-speed roads leads to better safety.”
As a point of comparison, Handfield-Jones referenced German’s famous Authbahns – highways with sections with no enforceable speed limits – which are some of the safest high-speed zones in the world.
“Countries like Australia, on their highest-speed roads, have actually increased speed limits recently, and they haven’t noticed an increase in fatalities,” added Handfield-Jones.
South Africa has incredibly high road fatality rates, but an important distinction is that almost half of these deaths are for pedestrians, rather than vehicle occupants.
“About 40% of annual fatalities are pedestrians, and that’s a state that’s been stable for about 40 years now,” he explained.
In practice, this means that most fatal accidents occur in areas where cars are more likely to encounter foot traffic, such as urban metros.
“Especially before 1994, road builders were relatively unconcerned about slapping high-speed roads through the middle of settlements,” said Handfield-Jones.
This issue is compounded by factors such as a lack of pedestrian bridges or tunnels, forcing individuals to risk crossing high-speed roads.
Handfield-Jones added that there is a lack of pedestrian road safety awareness in South Africa, as it can often be difficult to inform people of the dangers due to the country’s low education and literacy rates.
“Most drivers are educated and they’re easy to reach,” he stated.
“It’s always been a question of mine why the government isn’t going after drivers to educate them better on how to avoid pedestrian crashes.”
An ongoing debate
Handfield-Jones’ comments follow a recent communique that started circulating in South Africa claiming that all of the nation’s speed limits would be lowered by 10 to 20km/h.
The communique alleged that the new “Sanral Highway Law” would take effect from 1 July with the following changes:
- School zones – Reduced from 40km/h to 30km/h
- Urban roads – Reduced from 60km/h to 50km/h
- Rural roads – Reduced from 100km/h to 80km/h
- Highways and national routes – Reduced from 120km/h to 110km/h
- Public transport lanes – Reduced from 100km/h to 80km/h
- Construction zones – Reduced from 80km/h to 60km/h
It also claimed that the cap on speeding fines would be raised to R5,000, depending on the severity of the transgression.
Furthermore, the country would adopt a zero-tolerance policy for alcohol consumption, with a minimum of a R2,000 fine and a 24-hour licence suspension for offenders with even minute traces of alcohol in their system.
However, this communique has since been debunked by the South African National Roads Agency (Sanral).
The Automobile Association (AA) has stated it does not agree with the suggestions to reduce the nation’s speed limits.
Instead, it advocates for target law enforcement efforts to crack down on issues like drunk driving and reckless and negligent driving, which are leading contributors to South Africa’s road fatality rates.
It also argues that a universal speed limit reduction is not supported by sufficient data and that it would be more effective to lower speeds on specific routes with high crash rates and many pedestrians.
Loading ...
